1880-05-10-New York Tribune-Foretelling Dangers in the West

Foretelling Dangers in the West

New York Tribune, 10 May 1880, p. 2

The Rev. E. B. Godwin's Sermon Before the America's Home Missionary Society.

The fifty-fourth anniversary of the American Home Missionary Society was held last evening at the Broadway Tabernacle, at Broadway and Thirty-fourth-st. D. B. Coe, the secretary, read a condensed statement of the condition of the society, and the work of the last year. According to this report the receipts were $266,720, and the expenditures $259,709. The number of ministers in the service of the society is 1,015—the largest number since the withdrawal of the Presbyterians, nineteen years ago, and 69 in excess of last year. Of the whole number of missionaries, 662 are engaged in the Western States and Territories. During the year the number of congregations and missionary stations supplied was 2,308, 96,724 pupils were brought into Sunday-schools and 86 churches were established. The number of additions to churches reached about 6,000.

The anniversary sermon was delivered by the Rev. Dr. E. B. Goodwin, of Chicago, who took his text from Deuteronomy 1., 21. He said the call for missionaries came from the mining gulches, cattle ranches and lumber camps of the great West. There was no more providential opening for the Gospel than that in this country, and it was very important that the States and Territories that lie between the Mississippi and the Pacific should be evangelized. The vast territory was being rapidly peopled by the tide of emigration from European countries. A study of the subject led to the belief that dangerous elements were at work, which in time might work trouble to the country. Seeds of socialism were being sown by the organizations of the Old World, that were emptying themselves on the new continent. The country had become the natural field for the refugee and the reprobate. There was not a miner that did not have the slang of Denis Kearney, the ribaldry of Ingersoll and the doctrines of socialism at his tongue's end. Unless the missionaries did their work, there would be great danger within the next generation from these classes. A greater danger still was to be apprehended from Mormonism. The Mormons were never so strong as now, and were receiving large additions from Europe each year. It was a form of empire seeking to extend itself into neighboring territories. One thing was certain; this difficulty would have to be met either by Christianity or by the sword.

Another great peril was Roman Catholicism. In New Mexico, where it had been established 300 years, it had produced a fearful result. All of the restraints of morality were broken down and the officials and people alike were corrupt. In California the Roman Catholics owned more property than all of the other denominations combined. In view of these facts, the character of the States and Territories west of the Mississippi, the preacher said, would have to be settled during the next decade. As the centre of the Nation was gradually being removed to the West, its future welfare would hang on the character of the new states.